Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Electric Revelations

Hilda may have looked still but her mind was racing. So many memories were rushing in like water through a broken dam. They mixed haphazardly with the reality around her.

One moment Hilda was a little girl playing patty-cake with her grandmother. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not touch her grandmother’s hands. Something repelled her. Back then the old woman didn’t live with her, but visited often.

Suddenly a muscular brother was throwing her to the ground, encircling her wrists with metal cuffs. She did not resist and soon felt a chill in her arm muscles as she did when the man at the depot grabbed her.

Then she was in the past again. It was night and she was in the forest near the farm with Beatrix. They were laughing. They were floating. They were flying among the trees.

Someone hit her back-handed across the face. Hilda tasted blood in her mouth.

“That’ll teach you to laugh witch,” said the brother who had bound her. “Silver, help the Grand Regimen.”

She only saw this scene for a moment. It was soon replaced by her grandmother smiling up at her from her bed. This memory was from just a few years back. Beatrix had been sick and Hilda had sat up with her all night. Just before dawn, her fever had broken.

“I have taught you well, my child,” said the old woman. Hilda fed her a spoonful of tea. “Granddaughter, you are a Weaver. And there will come a time when you will remember this and take your place among us.”

“Take her to the maximum security cell,” said Brother Loomis in a weak voice.

Someone pulled her to her feet and led her toward the door. Hilda focused her eyes and saw the vile old man leaning on the arm of the man who had abducted her, the one called Silver.

As she neared him, Hilda felt a sensation difficult to describe. It was as if an electric insect was buzzing in her brain. The closer she came, the louder it became. She reached out to Silver with cuffed hands. When they connected, a lash of raw power ran through them both. Their eyes locked.

In an instant Hilda knew two things. Silver was not her enemy and he had her amulet.

The muscular brother pulled her away.

“You have something of mine,” Hilda screamed as she was dragged away. “It’s mine.”